Henry Winkler Reveals How He Overcame Dyslexia and Its Impact on His Career
Henry Winkler is opening up about the struggles he faced while appearing as the Fonz on TV’s beloved ’70s hit Happy Days.
While on the surface fans never would have known, Winkler is finally getting candid about his secret battle with dyslexia. Speaking to People, he said, “I spent most of my adult life being frightened, on the outside looking like I had it together and mostly being anxious.”
“I was a terrible student,” Winkler acknowledged in an excerpt from his new memoir, Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond. Born in New York to German-Jewish parents, Winkler had a tough time with reading and comprehension growing up, and in turn was treated coldly by his mother and father, who he claims referred to him in German as “dumb dog.”
The future actor masked the pain with humor, and his improv skills eventually pushed him from Yale School of Drama to Hollywood, where he had a walk-on part in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Eventually, that paved the way for his audition for Happy Days in which his role as the Fonz made him a household name.
(Credit: Everett Collection)
So, what led to Winkler’s eventual diagnosis, according to his memoir, was when he married his wife Stacey at the height of Happy Days fame — her young son Jed had experienced some cognitive issues at school. Taking him to an occupational therapist, Jed’s dyslexia diagnosis resonated with Winkler who identified with his struggles.
“In third grade, he had to write a report and couldn’t do it,” Winkler told the People. “I said to him everything that was said to me: ‘Go back to your room. You’re being lazy. Live up to your potential. You’re so verbal.’ I then had him tested and we read everything they said. I went, ‘Oh my God, Stacey, this is me. I have something with a name.'”
Ultimately, Winkler’s two children he had with Stacey, Max and Zoe, were also diagnosed with the learning disorder. “It’s hereditary,” Winkler shared. While Winkler has continued to thrive in Hollywood, he was initially hesitant about writing a memoir. His son Max had originally pushed for him to do it, but Winkler recalled that he said, “‘I’m dyslexic. I’m not writing a memoir.’ I dismissed it out of hand. There are so many things that I have done now that I have dismissed out of hand and boom, they became a really important part of my life.”
In an excerpt from the memoir shared by People, Winkler wrote, “I didn’t find out I was severely dyslexic until I was thirty-one. For all the years before that, I was the kid who couldn’t read, couldn’t spell, couldn’t even begin to do algebra or geometry or even basic arithmetic.”
Ultimately, he revealed in the excerpt, “When I found out that I had something with a name, I was so f***ing angry. All the misery I’d gone through had been for nothing. All the yelling, all the humiliation, all the screaming arguments in my house as I was growing up – for nothing… It was genetic!”
Despite all the challenges, Winkler has certainly come out on top as he continues to act, most recently gaining critical acclaim for his role in HBO‘s Barry. Learn more about Winkler and his life by picking up a copy of his memoir when it lands on shelves October 31.
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